Inside the passageway, Hua and I were crawling upward while arguing.

  “Did we miss a mechanism back there?”

  “No way. I’m sure we cleared them all.”

  “Then maybe we left something behind?”

  “Impossible. Didn’t you even pick up the corpse’s little box?”

  “Then… could it be…”

  The three of us tossed out one guess after another, getting more confused the more we talked. By the time we reached the top, we still hadn’t figured out a thing.

  Only when we crawled all the way up and got close did we see it clearly—not the moon, not water, but a round bronze mirror set into an arched stone door. The mirror reflected the starlight, the shadows of trees, and even a faint ripple from far away. Through it, everything looked as if seen through a sheet of trembling water.

  The moment my hand touched the surface, the door clicked and loosened, opening a thin crack.

  No darts. No poison. A bit too quiet, honestly.

  We tumbled out as fast as we could—only to freeze on the spot.

  Outside was neither a burial chamber nor another passageway. It was… a broken-down kitchen.

  A perfectly ordinary kitchen built on ground level.

  Part of the roof had collapsed, letting moonlight stream through the hole and spill coldly over the stove.

  We had crawled out from a half-man-high abandoned mud stove, the three of us covered in soot like frogs that had escaped halfway through being boiled.

  I trembled, patted the dirt off, and muttered, “So we’re out? Just like that? Great. Turns out this whole trip was basically being fished out of hell’s cooking pot.”

  Hua slapped the dust off his sleeves and burst out laughing. “Who cares? We’re finally out!”

  Lian didn’t laugh. He looked down at the silver box he had tucked away. I couldn’t tell whether he was relieved or even heavier-hearted.

  Then I shivered again. A nagging feeling crawled up my spine—like we really had forgotten something.

  But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember what.

  We moved forward, two behind one in front, our steps growing heavier.

  “What wasteland did we end up in this time?” I grumbled. “Last time we came up it was in the woods. Judging from all this nonsense zig-zagging, we’ve probably wandered eight thousand miles off the route.”

  Lian’s lips curved slightly. “Look over there.”

  I looked up—and nearly dropped my jaw. On the city gate ahead were three big characters: He Ling City.

  “Well I’ll be damned!” I slapped my thigh. “This whole underground ghost road was the correct route?!”

  Hua shook his fan and chuckled. “Shouldn’t complain so much. Sometimes fate works in mysterious ways.”

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  “Mysterious my ass.” I clutched my stomach. “I just want fate to give me a hot bath, a soft bed, and three days of sleep—in that order.”

  Hua and I bickered the whole way like monkeys fresh out of the mountains. Lian simply walked ahead, glancing back occasionally, the faintest hint of amusement flickering in his eyes.

  Just when I finally relaxed and thought this disaster was behind us, Lian suddenly said, “I remembered.”

  My nerves snapped tight. “Remembered what?”

  “That bandit leader,” he said calmly. “He’s still down there.”

  I froze. Then stiffened entirely. “…Excuse me?! And you’re only remembering this now?!”

  Hua paused, then let out a soft laugh. “Think about it. Those gold crowns and belts we saw—clean as if someone had polished them. And the exit being absurdly easy… It’s possible someone else knows the place better than we do.”

  I slapped my thigh. “It must be that fox-faced bastard! Bet the bandit leader and that demon are probably holding hands in a cell right now!”

  Hua shook his head. “If that’s true… they might show up holding hands in front of us any moment.”

  Me: “???”

  Lian only glanced at us. “Let’s enter the city.”

  My neck shrank instinctively. Suddenly I didn’t feel so eager for that bath or sleep anymore. Something told me we’d end up going back down there sooner or later.

  By the time we reached He Ling City, night had fallen, and the city gate was already shut.

  I stared at the closed doors, my heart sinking. “Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.”

  Lian stood beside me, looking up. A black flag hung over the gate, snapping in the night wind, its shadow wavering under the moonlight.

  “What kind of flag is that?” My heart tightened.

  Hua lowered his voice. “Something’s happened.”

  【System Prompt: Black Flag—Martial Law. Outsiders forbidden to enter. Possible emergency inside the city. Host advised to exercise caution.】

  The line startled me so much my back went stiff. I quickly pretended nothing had happened so the other two wouldn’t notice.

  Traditionally, flags hung on a city gate had meanings: white for plague, black for lockdown, red for danger. A black flag meant martial law—no outsiders allowed.

  There wasn’t a soul at the gate. Even the guards stood far away with their halberds, allowing no one to get close.

  “It’s not just that the gate is closed,” Lian said quietly. “The entire city is under lockdown.”

  My stomach dropped. The black flag flapped in the wind like a silent warning. Something inside He Ling City was brewing—a storm we hadn’t been prepared for.

  We circled the city wall in total darkness, shoes soaked in mud, and found no other way in.

  I finally asked, “Do we really have to go through He Ling City? Can’t we… take a detour? As long as we don’t go underground again.”

  Lian shook his head, expression unreadable. “No. We must enter. There’s an elder inside—a senior I promised I’d meet.”

  My heart thumped once. Anyone the leader of the Blood Lotus Sect insisted on meeting… could not be an ordinary figure.

  As I mulled this over, the grass nearby rustled violently. A few small heads poked up from the darkness.

  I nearly screamed, thinking something foul from underground had followed us.

  “Who goes there!” Hua had already gripped his folding fan like a weapon.

  Out from the grass crawled three children—two boys and a girl, all smudged with grime and strangely familiar.

  Hua suddenly murmured, “Look at their wrists.”

  I squinted. All three wore ragged red cords—the same kind those grave-robbing thieves had. The threads were frayed, like they’d been yanked around.

  The oldest boy stared at me for a long moment, then stepped forward and rasped, “Benefactor… it’s really you?”

  I slapped my forehead. “Oh! It’s you brats—the ones who grabbed my pancake back in Luoyan City!”

  “You guys? What are you doing here?” I almost burst out laughing.

  The boy grinned, showing two chipped front teeth. “We’re trying to get into He Ling City! Thanks again for the pancake and the silver, benefactor… but benefactor, why did you get so skinny? You look like you’ve been soaked in brine.”

  I nearly choked. “I’m skinny because—”

  【System Prompt: Host’s BMI has dropped 12%. Recommend increasing protein intake.】

  “Shut up,” I screamed internally, then forced a smile. “Summer heat.”

  【System: Look at their wrists. Probably still connected to that gang.】

  “I know,” I muttered inwardly, though unease curled in my gut.

  I couldn’t help asking, “Do you kids know a way into He Ling City? What happened inside?”

  The boy glanced around, then whispered, “If you don’t mind following us, benefactor, you’ll understand once you’re in.”

  Then he dropped to his knees and crawled into a tiny hidden hole in the wall.

  I stared at the dog-sized opening, expression blank. “...This is how you normally enter a city?”

  “Move,” Hua said, pushing me forward with his foot.

  So I had no choice but to crouch down and follow the kids into the dark tunnel, Lian and Hua close behind.